Corban Festival

Overview

October 26, in 2012 is one of the most important religious holidays in the Islamic groups. It is Corban Festival, also called Eid al-Adha that is widely celebrated by Muslim ethnic group and Hui ethnic minority mainly in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Qinghai and Gansu Province of China. Corban Festival is well-known as the Festival of Sacrifice with a 3-day celebration.

Celebration

Usually, this festival is on December 10th to 12th in the lunar Islamic Calendar. Before Eid al-Adha, Islamic women are busy cleaning the houses, making tasty cakes and preparing delicious food. People kill the specially prepared livestock such as camels, oxen or sheep to celebrate the Corban Festival. And the meat is separated into three parts. The first part is the food for the family, the second part is the gifts for the friends and relatives and the third part is used to do some charity.

In the morning, male family members go to the mosques and take part in the Hajj. After the Hajj, they will dance together. Massive Islamic people hold large-scale ceremonies and celebrations in mosques and other public places.

During the festival, every family go to the cemeteries to memorize and pray best wishes for the dead family members. Besides, they invites friends and relatives to their home and take part in a varied of recreational activities.

Origin

Corban Festival is the major Islamic religious festival to show the faith and obedience to the Islamic god-Allah. As the legend goes, Allah tried to test Ibrahim's loyalty and asked Ibrahim to sacrifice his own son. Ibrahim was planning to kill his son without a hesitation to show the loyalty. But Allah had seen Ibrahim’s obedience and sent a sheep to replace Ibrahim's son. So in the Islamic world, people will kill at least a sheep to celebrate Corban Festival.

Tips: During the Corban Festival, travelers can enjoy the grand celebrations and Islamic culture, but Islamic people have a 5-day holiday this year which might bring some inconvenience.